Kaufman v. People

I. Introduction

We granted certiorari to review an unpublished court of appeals case to consider whether the court properly rejected alleged errors in the admission of evidence and the *546jury instructions in a criminal case.1 Jesse Joe Kaufman, the defendant, was convicted of first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, and a crime of violence, and was sentenced to incarceration for life without parole plus twenty years.

At the trial of this case, the court instructed the jury, as part of the instructions on Kaufman's self-defense theory, on a definition of second-degree assault that was…